I got an MBA, after being an IT admin and web developer for years. My company was so happy about it that they laid me off (well, not because of that, but they basically didn't see any value to an IT guy having a business degree, so it didn't help me when it came time to reduce their overhead). I spent the next five years freelancing my web development services, and then I got a job as a Website Business Analyst. The MBA helped me in terms of knowledge and thought process, and may have helped my current employer to see me as more than just a developer and offer me the BA role; or maybe they liked my self-started attitude from being a freelancer for five years. Who knows. However, I use very, very little from the MBA in my daily role as a BA.

Will an MBA automatically open career doors for you? Very tough to say. It's a nice bullet point on your resume, definitely. If you work in a bank and deal with finance, or deal with accounting, then yeah, an MBA can immediately translate into more money for you -- if you pursue the finance or accounting careers. As a developer, a lot of companies are going to have a tough time making the connection between your development skills and a business degree, and how that's going to help them. I've been accused in job interviews of "being all over the place" in my resume.

If by "management" you want to be more of a Lead Developer, then a graduate degree in software development will help you more. If you want to be a BA or PM, I suggest buying some books off Amazon and studying those, and maybe even trying to get a certification first, and see where it takes you; you may save tens of thousands of dollars that way.

I love the time I spent getting the MBA, because I loved the exploration of knowledge in all things business, and I love that I have a masters degree, but it may have been the long way around to where I am now. And yes, I'm making about $20k more as a BA than I did as a web developer.

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